SOCUL CONDITION OF AFRICA. 236 



mented cases, are hung round the person as guardian influ- 

 ences. The very circumstance of the characters being un- 

 intelligible gives to them the power of exciting ideas more 

 mysterious and supernatural. Where this art is unknown, 

 a bow, a horn, a feather, the beaks and the claws of birds, 

 even the most frivolous and insignificant object, is employed 

 and reUed on with the fullest confidence. Absurd, how- 

 ever, as are the observances of the negro, he is a stranger 

 to the deadly bigotry of his Moslem neighbour. He neither 

 persecutes, nor even brands as impious, those whose reli- 

 gious views differ the most widely from his own. There is 

 only one point on which his faith assumes a savage character, 

 and displays darker than inquisitorial horrors. The hope 

 of an immortal destiny, dimly working in the blinded hu- 

 man heart, leads to the wildest errors. The despot, the 

 object of boundless homage on earth, seeks to transport all 

 his pomp, and the crowd of his attendants, to his place in 

 the future world. His death must be celebrated by the cor- 

 responding sacrifice of a numerous band of slaves, of wives 

 and of courtiers : their blood must water his grave ; and 

 the sword of the rude warrior, once drawn, does not readily 

 stop ; — a general massacre often takes place, and the ca 

 pitals of these barbarian chiefs are seen to stream with blood. 

 This horrid system is not exclusively African ; but it else- 

 where exists on a smaller scale, and is attached to a state 

 of society much more decidedly savage. 



In regard to the social aspect of this continent, the unim- 

 proved condition in which it appears may be regarded as 

 that perhaps in which violence and wrong have the widest 

 field, and cause the most dreadful calamities to the hu 

 man race. The original simplicity, founded on the absence 

 of all objects calculated to excite turbulent desires and pas- 

 sions, has disappeared, while its place is not yet supplied by 

 the restraints of law and the refinements of civilized society. 

 War, the favourite pursuit, is therefore carried on with the 

 most unrelenting fury ; and robbery, on a great and national 

 scale, is generally prevalent. Brilliant and costly articles 

 already exist ; but these are distributed with an inequality 

 which the needy warrior seeks by his sword to redress. 

 African robbery is not perpetrated by concealed or proscribed 

 rufifians, who shrink from the eye of man, and are the out- 

 casts of social life. It is not even confined to the poor tribes 

 of the Desert, who see caravans laden with immense wealth 



